Black Skies
by danzori
Summary: This the story about Lily Evans and Sirius Black, and a forbidden love that was never put in the first place, and in the end, never really made a difference. But still, it was there all along.
1. Evening Dreams

**Hey people! This is only my second story ever written, so be nice.**  
**I hope you like my idea, and even though I suck at updating you will find this enjoyable. If I take too long, send me pm and i'll try to post a new chapter asap!**

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**DISCLAIMER: I don't own Harry Potter, J.K Rowling does.**

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_Ok. *Nervous* Here we go!_

**I Should Have Known**

**a story by danzori**

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**CHAPTER ONE**

She should have known. Yes, she should have learnt that it never could have worked.  
She sighed deeply and looked up at the dark sky above her, the same sky that they had silently admired together so many years ago. It hadn't changed a bit, even though everything else had. It was almost pitch black, and no clouds were obstructing the many twinkling stars which gleamed like diamonds in the darkness. The moon was nowhere to be found.

Once again, she sighed.  
It was, in its absence, leaving the stars to fend for themselves, just like her. Her deep green eyes shone in the night, the stars reflecting through them and her cheeks were rosy from the cold night air.  
Oh, how she hated being trapped like this, imprisoned in her own home. Dumbledore had told them it was for their own safety, that if they wanted to live, if they wanted Harry to survive, they had to hide themselves from the world. They had to disappear.  
So, they had. And she was growing sick it. She was currently seated at her favourite spot in the small backyard, surrounded by the familiarity of home. It was the farthest away from the house that she was able to go, without being held back by one of the many spells Albus Dumbledore himself had placed upon their simple home.  
It was the farthest she could get from her daily prison. And it was the farthest she could get from people she loved.

She had been out in the cold for almost twenty minutes now, but she hadn't moved an inch. Somehow, she enjoyed the feeling of freezing because it reminded her of how she had felt back then, so many years ago. With him. How his bare touch had sent shivers down her spine, how she'd gotten goose bumps just by looking into his grey, and oddly comforting, cold eyes.  
People had thought of him as cocky and too self secure back then. And, she had to admit it, he had been, most of the time, but not on those late nights they had spent at the top of the astronomy tower talking. No, he had been someone else.

During those nights he'd seemed like a stranger. A stranger to the world, which was used to the usual cockiness of Sirius Black.  
She had understood that this wasn't a stranger, but it was in fact the real Sirius Black. He'd shown her a part of himself no one had ever cared to discover and she - the plain, muggleborn Lily Evans - had been ardent to explore the mystery of the cold Sirius Black, who only ever cracked a smile when being up to mischief or accompanied by his best friend and companion James Potter. James Potter, who was now the father of her little boy.

Suddenly she could hear James calling out her name.  
"Lily!" He was still in the house. Didn't bother to come out, did he?  
"Lily!" he shouted again. "Look who's come to visit!"  
Lily turned around, surprised. Did they have a visitor? She frowned.  
But Dumbledore had said that no one, absolutely no one, could find them when under the Fidelius Charm.  
She hurried down the path towards the house, eager to find out who it might be. She could hear James laugh and another, more muffled voice laugh as well. Who was that? It was certainly a man, his voice low and smooth like a tenor. That voice... it almost filled her with an empty feeling. A longing feeling. Still, she couldn't really set her finger on whom it might be.  
As she rounded the corner to the kitchen and saw who it was, her face broke into a big smile. She couldn't help it, she never could.

It was Sirius. His face was exactly the same, the handsome face structure, the red lips. He was pale, the tan he usually wore, long gone. The only thing different was that he was much skinnier. His hair was shorter too, he must have cut it since she last saw him. His dark hair was messy and short, only making him even more handsome. When she had relished his whole face, she finally stopped at the eyes.  
Those eyes. She would never forget them. There was something truly sad about his eyes. They contained so much happiness but at the same time just as much sorrow. Lily had always been fascinated by them. They were the only pair of eyes in the world that could fascinate her in such a way. There was always some kind of secret lurking in shadows, yet another mystery to solve. There was always something more to explore when looking into them and she never grew tired of it.

"Ahem, Lily?" James's voice brought her back to reality, back to her small kitchen in their little house in Godric's Hollow. James gave her an insecure look, standing awkwardly between her and Sirius.  
"Oh, I'm so sorry, I must be really tired." She smiled at Sirius. "Hello Sirius."  
"Hey Lil. I hope you're well?" He grinned back at her, and she couldn't help that her heart seemed to beat faster.  
"Yep. You too?"  
"Yup."  
Lily's eyes saddened when she suddenly realized something. They couldn't take the conversation further than that. Not in front of James. Not ever.

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**And yes, I know it's really short but I couldn't wait to post it, hehe!**

**So what do you think of this first chapter? Please review :D**


	2. He's Heartbroken

She inhaled loudly, tasting the wind. It was so fresh and clean compared to the air in her hometown, where it was polluted by cars and airplanes. Here, it smelt like the woods, falling rain and dirty mud all at the same time. It was like stepping into a world no one had discovered yet, a world safe from everything evil. It was like seeing the sun for the first time or watching the one you love wake up in the early morning hours, it was pure.

Lily had chosen this spot, just by the edge of the deep lake, to think. She had gone here to finally be able to breathe, hear her own thoughts and especially escape her usual stalker, James Potter.

He seemed to be just about … everywhere. In the common room, the Great Hall, the library, anywhere she went, he mystically seemed to find her. Of course, she wasn't that complacent, he might just happen to choose exactly the same places to study or drink or eat or talk or… yeah. It might just be a hugely awkward coincidence. But wasn't it a little too blatant, when they had only been back a day, and Lily already felt stalked by him?

As said, it was the first day back at school, unfortunately a Sunday, so she didn't have much to do. Of course, she could study, but it felt a little too ambitious, even for her, to be studying before the classes had even started. She sighed when she thought about last time she had been sitting here, studying the ever changing dark of the lake, the ever changing shapes and colours of the endless black. Back then, she hadn't been alone, but in fact, with her best friend, Severus Snape.

She hadn't spoken to Severus since last term, after the… incident. Could she call it an incident? The fact that he, her best friend, Severus Snape had called her a mudblood? She still couldn't quite believe it, although she had spent the entire summer dwelling on it, she still couldn't understand it.

It was her sixth year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry and she had been waiting to return all summer, since at home, she had been all alone with her busy parents, who didn't even spare her a glance in between their important meetings with people like the prime minister. Petunia hadn't even been there.

Lily bit her bottom lip. Petunia. Her sister, her only sister, didn't seem to love her anymore. How could such a strong and beautiful, sisterly friendship turn into such an awful and foul mess? In a world where magic didn't exist, maybe there, they might have been good friends now.

But because of who Lily was, what Lily was, they couldn't seem to be in the same room without screaming wicked words and names at each other, without having to empty their cups of hatred against each other. They couldn't be friends. Couldn't be sisters. Couldn't.

She pushed away the depressing thoughts about her sister when she heard footsteps behind her. The damp sound slowly grew stronger as the person approaching her came closer. She didn't have to turn around to know who it was.

"Severus. Leave me alone." she said coldly with a smooth, indifferent voice. She was too tired to show any emotion at all, so she just sat there, staring coldly at her beloved lake. Just like the lake seemed to be, she was furious.

"Ahem." a clear and steady tenor voice answered cautiously. "I'm sorry."

It wasn't Severus, he didn't sound nearly as enchanting. She shivered involuntary.

In fact, she had no idea who that voice belonged to, but she could tell it was beautiful. She could tell it was a voice made to do great things, made to say great words. It was a voice made to heal those who heard it, a voice which had spoken many words and had been through a lot. It sounded innocent and weak, almost like a child's voice.

At the same time, it had a husky tone to it, almost like a smoker. Suddenly, when she thought of it, it didn't sound innocent and childish anymore, but more manly. It sounded like a cry of help, from a man with fears and enemies, a man with a burden to bear. An adult. Once again, she shivered. She wanted to hear him speak again, her ears needed to, once again, rejoice at the sound of such a melodic voice.

She decided to turn around and was utterly surprised by the face she saw. It was Black. Sirius Black. That bastard, Sirius Black who hung out with the disgusting James Potter, her stalker. She almost barfed.

"What are you doing here?" she hissed. "Leave me alone." she stared at him angrily. Her face had probably turned the same colour as her hair now. When he didn't move, and didn't even seem to want to move, her emotional walls finally broke and fell down. Everything she felt, or had ever felt was exploited, every angry feeling, every disappointment.

"What do you want from me, really?" She continued and stood up, so she wouldn't feel so small down there, on the ground. Instead it had the opposite effect, as he was much taller than her in standing position. "Did Potter send you here? To ask me out? AGAIN? For the sixhundredandfiftieth time, NO. I don't want him. He can go and hang himself, do you hear me? LEAVE ME ALONE!"

All her anger and fears from the past year seemed to pour out of her as she spoke. Severus betrayal, Petunias absence and goodbye, every little thing she had felt frustrated about or spilled tears over.

For the first time, Sirius Black seemed to be at loss of words. Whether it was because of Lily's sudden turn, or if it was something else, maybe the own bitter glint in his eyes, she couldn't tell. She was too furious to even notice.

He avoided her gaze.

"OK." said his lovely tenor shortly. Her heart swelled with disappointment at hearing the voice, that voice, say so little.

He quickly turned around, with his head down, and headed towards the castle. His handsomeness was gone and so was his usual pride, it seemed. As she watched him slowly walk away, she finally noticed it.

He seemed… sad. No, not sad, but heartbroken.

When Lily, later that day, thought about the moment by the lake she grew more and more certain that she was the first person to ever see Sirius Black, heartbroken.


	3. Steel meets Emerald

_**CHAPTER 3**_

She could hear her own shallow breath as she silently tried to calm herself. The night was dark, much darker than usual. It was piercing black, a darkness that frightened her but also soothed her, somehow. Looking up on a midnight black sky was something familiar to her, and she cherished it.  
Here, leaning against the usual old oak by the lake the complete darkness surrounded her; it was so dark, it sent shivers down her spine.  
In her left hand, she was clutching a letter from her sister. She held it tightly, clutched it until she nearly ripped the crinkled parch, so desperate was she, not to cry. How many times had she cried herself to sleep, wishing that her big sister would answer at least one of the many letters she sent?  
Had it not been just this very morning when her owl showed up at the breakfast table in the great hall, that she had thought that maybe this time, it would carry something else than the ordinary Daily Prophet; perhaps a letter from her sister?  
Every morning was a disappointment and every morning she silently paid the owl and read the paper while sipping at her black coffee. Her friends noticed this, especially Alice, her closest friend at Hogwarts.  
They would notice that every morning, when the mail arrived, Lily stopped speaking, stopped eating and spent the remainder of breakfast with her nose in the papers. Every day, when breakfast was over, she would become herself again; and they would never understand why.

Lily lit her wand. She took a deep breath and sighed. With cold and shaking hands she opened the letter, which she later realized might be one of the shortest letters she would ever receive.

_I'm sorry._

_P,_

She read the eight letters again. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. She was speechless, amazed that barely three words could change her world in such a drastic way.  
It was in that moment that Lily finally understood that she had lost her sister. She didn't when they first argued about going to Hogwarts five years earlier, neither did she come to that realization when Petunia, at the age of 14 called her 'a weird freak' and neither did she it dawn upon her when Petunia stopped answering her letters, the year before.  
This was the finale, the last battle between the Evans sisters. It was the end and Lily knew it. It was the first time Lily ever heard Petunia say, vocabulary or written, the words I'm sorry.  
She had given up.  
By one o clock in the morning, on a chilly night in late September Lily Evans lost her sister.

She closed her wet eyes, lay down in the cold grass by the old oak and silently sobbed herself to sleep under a lonely and black sky.

"Lily?" A voice said anxiously. Someone hit her gently on both cheeks. "Wake up." She opened her eyes, feeling groggy.  
Suddenly she realized that she was still lying in the cold and wet grass. Her clothes were soaked through and glued tightly to her body, exposing all her curves. Her hair was also wet. She could as well have been bathing in the lake, she thought, but that was definitely not the case.  
Quickly, she sat up and was met by the sight of Remus Lupin.

"Hey there." He said gently and smiled. She smiled back. She had always liked Remus, he was the only marauder that she had ever really had an interesting conversation with. She noticed that it was bright outside or at least ir was not dark anymore. Dawn had arrived.  
She looked back at the friendly face of Remus Lupin. He had black marks under his eyes, and his hair seemed dirty; he looked like was badly in need of a shower.

"How are you, Remus? You look tired." She said, her voice filled with concern for her friend, yes, he was her friend.

"Oh, I'm alright, had a rough night, that's all." He said, with a smile and a glint in his eyes that Lily couldn't quite interpret.

"Couldn't sleep?" she said then, trying to sound understanding.

"Yes, something like that."

As she shivered, she suddenly realized something.

"Oh God." She said, horrified. "What time is it? Did I fall asleep?—"

"Schh." Remus said and helped her up from the cold ground. The air was cold, and she was freezing in her wet clothes.

"It is just after five in the morning, I guess you must have fallen asleep out here." Remus said and started walking towards the castle. He had a small smile on his lips. Oddly enough, he didn't seem worried at all.

"Yes…" What was she going to say really, tell him the entire story about her long lost sister?  
"I had a lot on my mind." That would have to do.

"I know the feeling." He said and gave her a quick smile. "Is everything alright?"

Lily swallowed the lump in her throat that appeared every time she thought of Petunia. "Not really, no, but I don't want to talk about it."  
Remus nodded understandingly and kept his gaze steadied ahead of him.

Lily studied his face. His hair was brown, or some kind of bright brown, that almost seemed a little grey in the damp light of dawn. His face was actually quite handsome, though not many noticed this, as he usually looked like he never slept. He was not very tall, his face only a few inches above Lily's.  
She averted here gaze to the bright pink sky of dawn and sighed. It was beautiful.

"Look at the sky" she said. "Isn't it beautiful?"

Remus studied the sky for a while as they walked and then nodded.

"Yes, it is a quite spectacular view." It was a simple answer, from a simple boy. They continued to walk in silence; with the twittering of the birds the only sound breaking it. They reached the entrance and to their luck, the big wooden doors weren't locked.

"I guess Filch forgot to lock it." Lily said as they got into the castle. Remus smiled a smugly, as if he knew some secret she didn't know.

Suddenly, a voice was heard from the other side of the entrance hall.

"Moony! There you are!" James Potter ran towards them, worry in his dark blue eyes. It was the first time Lily ever saw a worried Potter. Behind him, the remaining two marauders appeared, Black and Pettigrew. They too, had a look of worry on their faces. At the sight of Sirius Black, Lily was reminded once again of their weird encounter almost a month earlier. She never really understood what had happened, what she really had witnessed that day, when Sirius Black hadn't really been Sirius Black. On the other hand, she thought, had it been the real one?

"Hello." Remus simply said to his friends. "I was out walking, you know my thing for early morning walks," he said this with a slightly melancholy smile, "and I found Lily. She seemed to have fallen asleep out on the school grounds." He smiled at her, not a derisive smile, but a sincere. She could feel James's gaze upon her and chose to ignore it, wondering what the hell they were supposed to do now. Shouldn't they go to the dormitory; what if Filch found them?

Suddenly, laughter filled the silence and Lily, utterly surprised, tried to locate from whom of the boys it might come from. It was not very surprisingly, Sirius Black.

"Something funny, Black?" she said angrily. He had no right to laugh at her expense! She could feel a fever coming on, and was anxious to get out of her wet clothes.

"You fell asleep outside? Who _does_ that?" he continued laughing, his white teeth glowing in the half dark of hall. No one else was laughing. His friends and Lily stared at him as if he was mad.

"Cut it, Padfoot!" James finally said, but it only annoyed Lily further. "She is tired and needs to sleep." he continued, turning to smile at Lily.  
Lily gazed angrily back at him.

"Excuse me but I do not need your help, thank you." She said with faked politeness. "If it's OK with everyone here, I'd like to go and get changed now. Goodnight, or yeah, good morning."

She turned around and headed up the stair, trying not to look back at the three boys who stared at her back in awe. Was it because of her tight fitting, on top of that almost see-through, outfit? Hadn't they seen a woman's body before? If the reputation was true, both Potter and Black had. She smirked.  
As she took the last step up the stairs, she suddenly felt strong arms around her waist.

"Not so fast, Evans." Sirius Black turned her around so that she was facing him. He stood close to her, close enough for her to smell his delicious scent. It was just enough aftershave (she assumed it was) to leave her wanting more, but it wasn't too much, like so many boys their age usually used, for instance, a certain stalker-gryffindor-seeker. They were standing close enough for her to see every little detail of his handsome face, so close that she could actually feel his chest vibrating as he spoke. She winced at the sound of his voice. That voice.

"It's a miracle if you survived a night outside without getting a fever. You should go to the hospital wing." Without waiting for an answer, he picked her up and placed her small frame in his arms. She immediately struggled to break his grip, but he who had the typical strong and muscular arms of a chaser didn't even seem to notice it. She gritted her teeth.

"Let me down. Now." She said in her most scary and intimidating voice, as if he would let her down if she only sounded scary enough. She noticed that both James and Remus seemed a little frightened, or perhaps surprised of her tone.  
Black wasn't frightened, though, and started walking.

"You can go to bed, guys. I can handle this." He shouted back at the boys as they rounded a corner.

He walked in silence for a while, staring blankly ahead of him while she, lying in his arms, tried to come to terms with what was happening.

"Why are you doing this?" Lily had to ask. She couldn't help but notice how strong he must really be, if he could carry her in his arms all the way to the Hospital Wing.

"Doing what?" he peered down at her with a straight face, but his eyes were curious, as if he didn't want her to know that he actually cared about what she said.

"Helping me."

"Oh…" he seemed to be at loss of words. He let her down, as if he just realized what he was doing. "Can you walk yourself now?" he said and peered down at her with a small smile. Lily could feel her temper rising.

"Yes, yes," she said sarcastically. "Thank you _so_ much for letting me down." She turned around on the spot, without saying another word, and left him there.

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**Disclaimer: I do (obviously) not own HP. **


	4. Nighttime Conversations

**DISCLAIMER: I don't own Harry Potter.**  
_A/N: Here's the next chapter! Enjoy! (And a big thank you to AreYouSirius-questionmark who betaed this.) _

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The next day, Lily was awoken by the throbbing pain in her head. It took a while for her to remember the happenings of the previous night, but when she did, the memory hit her hard. Had Sirius Black really… carried her? She pushed the thought away.

She cursed to herself as she tried to sit up but fell back down. Her balance was definitely not cooperating today. The sun rays streaming through the slits in her thick curtains informed that she had missed breakfast; it was probably closer to lunch. She groaned and with some effort managed to get out of bed, put on a t-shirt and a pair of slippers. Another sign of the late hour was the fact that all of her friends were out of bed, and even Alice, who was known for her habit of sleeping well into the afternoon during weekends, was nowhere to be seen,

Lily opened the door and got out of the dorm, down into the not so crowded common room, receiving a few weird looks from a few studying girls. _Is that Lily Evans? The head girl?_

She wasn't a pretty sight. Her long red hair was dirty and matted, and the big t-shirt had a big stain of wine on it, from a night a few weeks ago. It had been during one of the infamous Gryffindor common room parties, when a wasted Sirius Black had slipped while holding a bottle of wine and had fallen right at her. She sighed. She looked like she could be a drinker, which she was _not_, even though most of her friends seemed to like the parties that the Marauders occasionally threw.

She tip toed her way over to the big common room bathroom, and slipped in a booth.

On her way back to the dormitory a voice called her name.

"Evans!"

She groaned as she recognised the voice. It wasn't just anyone, it was James Potter.

"What?" she hissed impatiently. She wasn't even dressed, for crying out loud! She turned around, facing him angrily. Potter took a deep breath and opened his mouth to speak but fell silent as he took in her appearance. Despite being extremely irritated, Lily almost smirked at this; even Potter who claimed he loved her with all his heart probably found her at least a little repulsive. Perhaps she should dress like this everyday and then he would stop being such a pain in her ass.

"Er, you know what, I-,I can take it..-"

"Whatever." Lily said, cutting him off, not even bothering to listen to his attempt of catching her interest.

"Idiot," she muttered to herself as she passed him and made her way up the stairs to the sixth year's girl dormitory.

Potter just stared at the redhead in awe. God, he loved that girl.

Later that day, while in Defence Against the Dark Arts class, someone tapped her on her shoulder. She, who had been busy scanning through her paper with a big, red O shining for the whole class to see, ignored it. She was already in a pretty bad mood, partly because of the previous night, and sighed loudly as this very persistent person tapped her shoulder again. "Yes?" she said coolly, swallowing back the urge to turn around and smack the person's face. She continued to, at least pretend to, read her paper.

"Lily." Oh, she did not like the sound of that voice. Not again.

"Potter?" she hissed, showing no hint of politeness by turning around or acknowledging him at all.

"Can we talk?" he said, his voice actually sounding like the 17 year old boy he was. It was not at all the same smooth melody of Black, but at least it wasn't that high pitched sound he usually produced while surrounded by his fan club. Lily decided to ignore his question, instead, countering with one herself.

"Aren't you supposed to be at your desk, being Head Boy and all?" she asked, turning around and looking him straight in the eye with a stare so cold it would probably qualify among the Slytherin girls. She could hear Potter take in a sharp breath.

"Um, yes.. Well, er, yeah, I suppose so…" hesitantly, he went back to his bench, where Black sat with his head bent over his own paper. His dark hair seemed to gleam as the sun rays streamed through the high windows of the old classroom and she caught herself staring at the back of his head, intensely wishing he would turn around. Potter sat down next to him, and she looked away.

This was going to be a long year.

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The candle on the oaken table was slowly burning down and the shadows were, at the same pace, growing stronger; Lily Evans had yet to notice the darkness that was falling upon her. She was seated by her favourite spot in the huge Hogwarts library, currently reading a book about potions. Next to the book was a roll of parchment almost two feet long, filled from top to bottom with small and pretty beautiful handwriting. The silence did not at all bother the lone girl at the table.

It was close to midnight and Madam Pince had been kind enough to let her stay an extra ten minutes after closing. Grateful, Lily kept studying intensely, trying to finish off her essay before it was time for bed. She could feel her eyes getting heavy and was anxious to get back to the common room. Thankfully, it had been Potter's night to do rounds so she could focus entirely on her homework. Her deep concentration was suddenly interrupted by two voices, whispering fiercely, as if arguing. The library itself seemed to darken even further, and it was not a result of the slowly burning candles.

"You have to stop this, Bella… Don't push him away…"

Lily stiffened. It was the smooth voice of Narcissa Black and apparently, given the nickname, she was accompanied by her sister, Bellatrix Black. Lily held her breath.

Lily had never associated with any of the Slytherins, and they effectively kept away from her, but there was something about the Black sisters that always seemed to catch her attention.

Upon entering the Great Hall by breakfast, they always attracted a lot of attention; the two dark haired beauties with their dramatic looks and the blonde girl, the little sister with her bright blue eyes and defined, petite features. They were all different in very different ways; Bellatrix because of her sometimes provocative dressing and always so challenging mood, Narcissa because of her since long perfected coldness, grace and elegance and Andromeda because of how she didn't really seem to fit in Slytherin at all. They were all special, and they were all beautiful. There was something about the trio, Andromeda, Bellatrix and Narcissa, that, embarrassingly enough, affected her and always left her wondering what their pureblood childhood had really been like.

Lily had spoken to Andromeda plenty of times through Ted Tonks, who she was pretty good friends with, but the other two sisters, the proud (and in Bellatrix's case, dangerous) and fine Black women belonged to a world she would never fully understand. As they rounded the corner Lily kept her head bent down, trying to attract as little attention as possible from the two girls.

"He knows what he is doing, Cissy. He betrayed the family." Bellatrix said, raising her voice in clear annoyance.

"But, but…" the younger girl pleaded to her sister, tears in her beautiful blue eyes. "It's _Sirius_. We love him."

Lily stiffened even further. They were talking about Sirius. The biggest prejudice she had ever had and ever would have about Slytherins was crushed into millions of tiny pieces. _They cared._

"I know, Cissy." Bellatrix answered and for the first time, Lily could hint a spark of uncertainty in her strong voice. "I know."

It was so un-Bellatrix like, Lily thought she'd might be dreaming. The two sisters passed her, so absorbed in their conversation, that she was left unnoticed. She sighed with relief.

As she a few minutes later, made her way back to the common room, walking through the dark corridors of the castle, she was still thinking of them.

_"But, but… It's _Sirius_. We love him."_

She started running.


	5. Such an Eavesdropper

Lily Evans ran all the way up to the common room without even stopping to catch her breath. Not until she was facing the Fat Lady, did she stop, panting heavily. She mumbled the password and stepped inside the warmth of the usually crowded Gryffindor common room which was now, on the contrary, almost completely empty. The high windows did not let any light enter, for there was none that the sky could offer; it was completely dark. The only source of light was the slow glowing of the candles casting shadows around the room. Before she had the chance to step out of the shadowy corner by the entrance, two voices caught her attention, and she stilled, momentarily stunned.

"I wish we could a find a way to get back at Bella..." James Potter said, throwing himself at one of the sofas, grinning. He was probably referring to the earlier incident at dinner in the Great Hall, Lily mused as she stepped to the side in an attempt to hide in the shadows, where a very irritated Sirius and Bellatrix had snapped at each other's throats for the whole school to hear and see. They had been fighting for several weeks now, and each confrontation was more loaded than the other. Luckily, McGonagall had come to shove them off each other before it developed into more than mere insults. Both Blacks were known for their bad temper, passionate loyalty and tendency to throw around insults at anyone they disliked. For the first time in their lives, it was each other.

Standing in the shadows, Lily tried not to move and in that way attract attention.

Sirius Black sighed as he lazily seated himself in one of the huge armchairs. "Nah, I don't know. Maybe we should just leave her alone. I'm not kidding when I say she's crazy." He said, trying to grin but failing miserably. The only Gryffindor who could say this and to a full extent know how the word crazy applied to Bellatrix Black was Sirius Black, her cousin. Lily had a vague memory of Sirius talking loudly of childhood moments between the two where they had accidentally set each other on fire along with similar situations.

"Well well, Padfoot, it's your cousin after all, you have to have something in common." James said with a mocking smile. Sirius however, responded quickly:

"Well, she is hot." his enchanting voice grew lower. "I know you think so, I have heard you talking about her in sleep." He closed his eyes, mimicking a sleeping Potter. "Oh Bella, don't stop, pleeease." he laughed hoarsely with a humorous glint in his eyes, watching as James' face grew red. Even Lily smirked a little; the thought of Potter and Bellatrix Black together was hilarious.

"I do not." he mumbled faintly, and he shuddered, looking out at the dark common room, as if checking if there was anyone there who might overhear. He did not spot Lily in the shadows, although his gaze seemed to linger in her corner, as if he could feel her presence. It might be his magical powers, some wizards could simply feel the presence of another soul. Many aurors had this kind of magical and very minor talent. But he could barely be that advanced, he was only fifteen. Maybe he was just very attentive in general. James eyes wandered back to Sirius.

"Of course you don't." Sirius said happily. Then suddenly his expression grew serious. "All you can think about is Evans, anyways." and he made a very strange noise, something in between a laugher and a cough. Lily had no idea what he meant with it, though she was a little surprised that they suddenly were talking about her, and even more surprised of the tone in which Black said her name. Did he know she was standing there? She took a tiny step back, as if that would warrant her safety. She leant against the wall in the shadows and closed her eyes. Maybe she should stop hiding. Maybe she could simply take a step forward, say a casual hi and then head up to her dormitory.

There was an unnerving silence between the two boys as they were both lost in deep thought. Lily felt her stomach flutter a little as she realised that what they were thinking probably had something to do with her. It was difficult to make out their facial expressions in the vague light but she thought she saw a swift smile on Potter's face.

At last, Sirius spoke out loud, his lovely tenor breaking the silence softly:

"You know, Prongs, that the hat wanted me with them."

Potter's eyes snapped away from the ceiling and focused on Black.

"What?" he said. His voice was not even close to as soft and peaceful as Black's. In contrast to the silence and how carefully Black had approached it, Potter could have been shouting.

"Slytherin, it said. Told me that anything else would be ridiculous," Black bit his lip, frowning. "And you know what? Sometimes I seriously doubt it. You know, it putting me in Gryffindor."

James Potter's blue eyes stared intently at the heir of the Black family fortune. For once, Potter's eyes gleamed with something in resemblance to insight and there was a lurking wisdom in the corner of his eyes.

"It is wrong, then." said he, his voice calm and smooth, barely audible, finally as peaceful as Black's. Lily didn't know what to think, couldn't even think clearly when seeing something so unusual in Potter.

The silence between the two boys was broken by a third voice:

"Indeed, I think it was wrong." And someone stepped out of the shadows of the opposite corner from Lily's, his body language and gangly figure at once giving away who he was. Remus Lupin smiled at his friends and made his way over to them. Lily could hint a smile playing at Sirius Black's lips.

Lily however felt horrified as she realised Remus had lurked in the shadow, eavesdropping.

_Surely he has better manners than that?_ She thought to herself as the boys made their way up their dormitory and she was left alone in the darkness. It wasn't until half an hour later, as she lay in bed beneath the soft sheets with the curtains drawn closed as she realised she was just as bad.

* * *

_If you feel like and have time to, do tell me what you think! /danzori_


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